John Higgins grabs an easy victory over Rory McLeod in Round 1 of 2012 China Open
Reigning World Snooker Champion from Scotland, John Higgins showed his class in the first round of the 2012 China Open snooker tournament against the only Muslim player in the professional snooker, Rory McLeod. The Scotsman played outstandingly at the Beijing
University Students Gymnasium arena and nudged his opponent down by an easy score line of 5-1.
The match up was expected to be a thrilling encounter because both players had faced each other in the 2011 World Snooker Championship before and knew the strengths and weaknesses of each other. McLeod was hoping for a good result from his side but he failed
to change his tactics in accordance with the game’s requirements.
However, he was able to add only one frame on his side of the score board but on the other hand; Higgins had it all from the beginning and did not let McLeod take control of the match. The Wizard of Wishaw fired some outstanding knocks 62, 61, 90 and 58
to hit the match victory by the score line of 5-1. He will next meet the former World Snooker Champion from England, Peter Ebdon.
Speaking to World Snooker after his victory, “I'm very happy to win 5-1, obviously I've had some very tough matches against Rory and when I lost the first frame I was thinking it was going to be difficult. But he missed a couple and I played pretty well
to win.”
The world champion added, “I need to improve every area of my game. Obviously this is a very important tournament, coming up before the World Championship. I would love to win this event. I've never been successful in Beijing in any tournament so I would
love to win this one.”
The Scot’s performance has not been up to the mark in the current season as he was not able to win any major or minor ranking snooker event. He even crashed out of the initial rounds of several important tournaments. Nevertheless, the Scottish cueman is
looking forward to win the 2012 China Open and add a title in his account.
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